The S.C. Senate’s version of the state’s $13 billion budget for 2024-25 calls for an income tax cut as well as pay raises for teachers and state employees. Senators will start debating the budget this week in Columbia.
The budget also seeks to invest more in roads and bridges as well as more than $225 million to fund a new School of Medicine campus for the University of South Carolina and a new veterinary school at Clemson University.
The budget plan, which emerged from the Senate Finance Committee last, builds on the budget passed by the S.C. House of Representatives last month. Differences between the House and Senate budgets will eventually have to be hashed out by a conference committee made up of members of both bodies.
“This is a very fiscally responsible budget,” longtime Finance Committee member Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said in a Thursday interview. “It focuses on core functions of government, and when we were able to get some money back to the taxpayer, we did.”
The major differences between the House and Senate budgets grow out of the way each treats a $600 million surplus in state sales tax collections.
In March, House budget writers rejected Gov. Henry McMaster’s proposal to put the funds toward repairing and replacing the state’s aging bridge network. Instead, they used it to fund a one-time property tax rebate with an average benefit of $330 for South Carolina homeowners.
Staking out a middle ground, the Senate budget provides $100 million in permanent income tax relief, and invests the bulk of the balance in roads, bridges and rural projects involving water and sewer infrastructure.
In other Lowcountry headlines:
Antisemitism audit shows spike in incidents in S.C. Antisemitic incidents nearly doubled in South Carolina from 2022 to 2023, according to a new audit by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The numbers jumped 93% in incidents year over year, the report said.
SC-1: Templeton’s campaign bogged down by son’s legal issues. A Republican challenge to U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., by former gubernatorial candidate Catherine Templeton of Mount Pleasant is running into stormy days as her son’s run-ins with the law are making headlines.
Wood named Trident Tech’s 6th president. Trident Technical College on Tuesday named Ohio educator Vicky Wood as its sixth president. She will succeed longtime President Mary Thornley, who is retiring in June after 50 years of service at the college.
Tragedy highlights risk in Black maternal deaths. As a Black woman, one North Charleston resident was at a greater risk of not surviving her pregnancy because of her race, age, previous medical condition and discrimination, according to a new study released by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
In statewide headlines in recent days:
Bill at S.C. House would make period products tax-exempt. A bipartisan bill advancing in the House would exempt period products from state and local sales taxes — a cost that supporters argue is only imposed on a specific group of South Carolinians and disproportionately affects many of them.
Crabbing regulation bill sinks in Statehouse. South Carolina crabbers have succeeded in sinking a bill that would have introduced regulations on the state’s troubled blue crab fishery for the first time as officials tried to address plummeting catches over the last two decades.
S.C. senators want residents to submit ID to access certain websites. South Carolina senators are advancing legislation requiring pornographic websites to verify users’ age despite warnings from a staff attorney the bill could face First Amendment issues.
S.C. Republicans reject 2018 Democratic governor nominee’s bid to be judge. Republicans in the South Carolina General Assembly have taken the rare move of rejecting the only remaining candidate in a race to be a circuit judge.
Senate opposition leaves S.C. energy bill with listless future. Several S.C. senators spoke out against an energy proposal that supporters say will help South Carolina keep the lights on as the state rapidly grows before the bill could get debated on the Senate floor.
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